Sarkozy's visit is a victory for Bashar

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives today in Syria on a landmark visit that signals the return of Damascus to international politics, ending more than three years of political isolation. The visit can also be seen as an attempt by Paris to find a role in this vital region, dominated by the United States.

Sarkozy's trip is the latest step towards normalising relations with Syria. The ties were frozen after the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri after Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, had blamed Damascus for the killing. It is also the first visit by a Western head of state to Syria in five years.

In the Arab world, this trip is seen as a diplomatic victory for the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, who continues to defy US attempts to isolate Syria regionally and internationally over its support of resistance groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Syria is being accused by the US of trying to destabilise Iraq and Lebanon. But a recent change of actions and a series of visits by Lebanese and Iraqi officials to Syria seem to have put relations back on the right track. Syria said it will open an embassy in Beirut, a long-time Lebanese demand that was made a condition by Sarkozy. Syria is officially thus out of the box. But so is France's Middle East foreign policy.

Chirac, whose policies Sarkozy is trying hard to undo, withdrew his country from this region's politics, despite the historic relations it has had with most of the Arab countries. In his later years in power, Chirac, in fact, became part of the region's problems. He aligned himself with certain countries (Lebanon, Saudi Arabia) against others (Syria).

Meanwhile, Sarkozy by encouraging Syria to adopt moderate policies and mediating in the complex Arab-Israeli conflict, can very well be part of the solution.